


Too Late?

by Witchgirl1234



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, Happy Ending, Jealous! Sara, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-03-30 19:49:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13958745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witchgirl1234/pseuds/Witchgirl1234
Summary: Gary accidentally reveals to Sara that Ava has a crush on her only for Sara to discover that the agent now has a girlfriend. Now that she knows, she can't stop thinking about Ava.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this idea basically came about from watching Friends and I couldn't resist lol  
> This is canon compliant up until 3x09 and after that everything is basically the same but Sara hasn't been told by the other Legends to ask Ava out yet lol  
> Hope you enjoy :)

Sara tapped her fingers on the desk and pursed her lips at the blank screen in front of her.

When Gideon had announced that there was a Time Bureau agent on the line, she had naturally assumed that it would be Ava. It was for this reason that she was very much disappointed when she saw the face of Gary appearing on the screen.

He had informed her that Director Bennett was not happy that they had conducted themselves on their latest mission. Sara had just nodded along since it was no where near as intimidating as it could have been if it was Agent Sharpe carrying out the usual call.

The blonde convinced herself that the reason that she was so worried was because she and Ava were now actually friends, that gave her the right to be worried when something happened out of the ordinary.

The blonde blew out a frustrated sigh and rose from the table to go back over to the screen. She took in a deep breath and looked around the room as she tried to see if there was possibly any of her team about to walk into the room. She couldn't quite take the judgemental look that she would get if any of them saw that she let her worry get the better of her.

The captain crossed her arms over her chest and called, "Gideon, can you please call Gary back?"

"Of course, captain," the AI replied and not a second later, an image of the anxious agent appeared on the screen.

"What happened? What's wrong?" he asked quickly with widened eyes.

Sara tilted her head at the man, for a moment, she considered berating him for thinking that the Legends could possibly have messed anything up since they had talked not a minute ago, but she had long since found out that making the agent nervous would only mean that it would take longer to get the answers that she wanted.

"Nothing happened," she replied dismissively, "I…actually asked Gideon to call Agent Sharpe, she must have made a mistake…" Sara held her breath for a moment as she waited for the AI to correct her, but the computer seemed to decide that she must have a good reason for blaming her for a mistake.

"Oh," Gary relaxed, "Ava…isn't available…"

Sara narrowed her eyes at the man as she noticed his jaw tensed slightly as if he was remembering something.

"Gary," the blonde said lowly, as she took a moment to figure out if she was being irrational. After all, she was interrogating the man just because Ava hadn't been the one to call them, but as she thought back, Ava had never taken a day off as long as she knew her, it wasn't any kind of special occasion today and she had been the one to tell Sara about the mission in the first place. There was no way that the agent wouldn't want to see it through to the end since she would be the one who would have to write a report justifying why she had asked the Legends to do it and not the bureau. "I need to talk to Ava."

The man on the screen took a deep breath and looked behind him as if to make sure that he was alone in his office.

"Agent Sharpe is in the infirmary," he replied in a whisper.

Sara stared blankly at the screen for a couple moments as all of the possibilities began running through her head. Was Ava seriously hurt? How long would she be out of action for?

It was strange to think about, but Sara somehow felt that the Legends needed Ava, even if she had hated her originally. She was their only real connection in the Time Bureau without Rip and Sara couldn't help but think that the Legends would be forced to come to an end without the support of at least one of the Time Bureau agents.

"What happened?" Sara asked sharply.

Gary blew out a deep breath and shook his head, "I can't divulge information of our missions to you, captain, but Ava's fine, she's just a little beat up…"

The entirety of the blonde's body relaxed and she resisted the urge to blow out a loud breath of relief.

The agent on the screen still seemed to notice the utterly relieved expression on her face and he smiled broadly at her, "I told Ava that you liked her back but she didn't believe me," he said casually.

Sara's brow furrowed and she slowly looked back up to Gary, her expression somewhere between utter shock and a demand for answers.

"What did you just say Gary?"

The agent visibly paled and took in a couple deep and nervous breaths as he tried to think of something else that he could have possibly said. However, nothing similar came to mind and he began to stutter, "I..I thought you already knew…"

"Knew what, Gary?" Sara asked. She wasn't quite sure whether she felt terrified or excited in this moment, but she did know that she needed to know exactly what Gary meant before she did anything else.

The agent looked for a moment like he was going to hang up, but he knew that the assassin could easily just come to his office and demand answers, in much more painful ways. So he decided that simply telling the truth would be the best option for his safety.

"At a company party Ava…kind of got really drunk and started telling me everything that she loves about you so I told her that you probably like her back but she wouldn't believe me…"

The man cringed when the blonde didn't say anything for a few moments as she considered everything that she had learnt. She had always known that there was a certain amount of chemistry simmering beneath the surface with her and Ava and she hardly one to deny that the agent was hot, especially when she let her hair down, but there was also a part of her that thought of the woman as one of her friends. Maybe she was just being wilfully ignorant because the idea of being in a potential healthy and functioning relationship kind of scared her since the last one she had been in was with an assassin who had tried to kill her family?

Either way, the fact that she had now been presented with undeniable facts about Ava's feelings meant that she could not repress her own. They all seemed to spring up at once as she thought about how much she loved it when the agent actually smiled, how helpful she had been following Martin's death, how comfortable she was around the Legends to the point that she had joined in a couple of their movie nights.

Sara's eyes widened when she realised that thinking about Ava was actually making butterflies erupt in her stomach. That hadn't happened since the first time she had met Oliver Queen way before she had ever boarded the Queen's Gambit.

Gary laughed nervously as Sara continued to stare at him blankly and he asked, "are…are you okay?"

The blonde blinked out of her thoughts and she finally focused more on the man on the screen, "you're sure she likes me?" she asked with the least amount of confidence she'd had in a long time. The possibility that Ava didn't like her back wasn't something that she could quite handle now that she knew that her feelings for the taller woman were not strictly platonic.

"She basically said that she…loves you," Gary said reluctantly, "but…"

Before the man could finish his sentence, the captain ended the transmission and let out a deep breath as she leaned back against the table behind her and stared at the blank screen with wide eyes for a couple seconds.

"Are you just going to stand there and do nothing?" a voice came from the doorway.

Sara jumped and quickly spun around to see Amaya leaning against the doorframe. She silently cursed herself for letting her feelings to break her usual hyper-awareness.

"What are you talking about?" Sara asked, trying to look as nonchalant as possible, though, with the information that she had just received, she was finding it particularly difficult.

Amaya just smirked and shook her head at the same time and she pushed herself away from the doorframe so that she could walk further into the room.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Sara," she replied, "you need to go and talk to Ava right now."

The blonde sighed and looked back at the blank screen as if she were making sure that had really happened.

"Gary just said that she's hurt though…" the blonde began but she trailed off when Amaya just shook her head.

"Stop making excuses, Sara, if you can survive the League of Assassins twice, then you can go and talk to the woman you like," the totem-holder shot back, "and the longer you let it simmer, the more you'll build it up in your head and then you'll never do it."

Sara sighed and nodded, she wasn't too surprised to discover that Amaya seemed to have been aware of her feelings way before her, plus, the fact that Ava was hurt actually gave her to the perfect opportunity to go and talk to her. If she descended into a nervous wreck, she could always say that she was only there to see how she was and not to ask her on a date.

"Fine," she replied, with no more defiance left in her tone, it was now or never.

The totem-holder smiled broadly and threw something over to the captain, which the blonde caught with ease.

Sara looked down to the device in her hand and saw that it was the Time Courier she had stolen from Rip and she smiled slightly when it occurred to her that Amaya must have gone to get it after hearing Gary tell her that Ava liked her.

"I guess I'll see you later," the blonde sighed as she entered some information onto the device and opened a portal into the Time Bureau. Unfortunately, she only knew the correct coordinates for one area of the offices, which meant that she stepped out into a room with Gary staring at a blank screen in horror.

"Where is the infirmary?" Sara demanded.

The man turned away from the screen and his eyes widened further.

"Captain Lance..." he started but the blonde held her hand up to stop his stammering.

"Gary can you please just take me to Ava?"

The man swallowed hard and considered his options. Even of he was afraid of Agent Sharpe, he was convinced that Sara was liable to physically attack him since she was the very woman who had held him hostage at gun point to get what she wanted.

"This way," he finally said after he sighed up which option would result in the least bodily harm.

Sara followed the man and after walking down a couple hallways, they made it to what was obviously the infirmary.

The room was surrounded by glass which meant that Sara could see straight in and there appeared to be only one patient in there.

The captain of the Waverider smiled at the sight of Agent Sharpe. Her arm was in a sling and it looked like she had a nasty bruise on the side of her face but other than that she looked completely fine, not at all like the images Sara had imagined when Gary told her that Ava had been hurt.

"Sara, there is something I need to tell you..." Gary said.

The blonde was about to ask him what it was, but her mind finally caught up with the fact that Ava was not alone in the room and was talking to someone.

All the captain could see from the distance was that she was blonde and clearly a doctor based on her white lab coat. Sara frowned when she realised that Ava was smiling easily but the frown turned into a scowl when the doctor leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her patient's lips and move a piece of hair out of the agent's face.

Sara turned around slowly and narrowed her eyes at Gary.

"That's what I wanted to tell you," the agent breathed, "Agent Sharpe started dating Doctor Cameron last week."

Sara stared at him blankly as she tried to take in what she had been told. She felt disappointment twitch was quickly replaced by anger.

"Why would you tell me that Ava loves me when she has a girlfriend?" The ex-assassin growled.

Gary squeaked and shook his head, "if you didn't hang up, I would have told you...they've been on and off again for a while now. Ava asked her out again after your mission in Camelot..."

The captain furrowed her brow but her eyes widened when she remembered the lecture she had received from Agent Sharpe about how it was 'inappropriate' to seek sexual pleasure while fixing time. She hadn't thought too much about it at the time, she may have been friends with Ava but the agent still had a job to do, which meant telling the Legends off. Now though, she realised that there had been a heavy hint of jealousy in the woman's voice all through the lecture. So Ava had found out she had sex with Guinevere and then went to ask her ex-girlfriend out?

Did that mean that Sara could just go and tell her that she wanted to ask her out and the agent would drop the doctor? She looked happy talking to the blonde, so could she have officially missed her chance?

A lump formed in Sara's throat. She had never considered that she would be leaving the bureau without a date if she had the courage to actually ask.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the budding of the device on Gary's wrist and Sara narrowed her eyes further when she saw that he appeared to be sweating.

"Agent Sharpe wants to know what you're doing here," he announced.

Sara looked over her shoulder at the agent and doctor who were both looking at her. Ava had a hint of a smile as she quirked an eyebrow and Sara felt bile rise in her throat when she realised just how the expression was.

The captain closed her eyes in frustration and considered all of the ways that she could hurt Gary.

She gave a quick scowl over her shoulder before she walked slowly over to the infirmary. She took a deep breath and thought of what she could say. This was suddenly more nerve-racking than asking the woman out, probably because she would actually need to be in the same room with the agent for whom she was now very aware of her feelings for.

She finally made it to the room and plastered a smile onto her face.

"Hey, Ava," she said, hoping that the injured agent may have been too hopped up on pain killers to notice the strain in her voice.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Agent Sharpe asked.

"Gary told me that you got hurt, I...just wanted to see if you're okay..." Sara said, it wasn't a complete lie.

"She'll be fine, just out of the field for a couple weeks," the doctor answered before Ava could even open her mouth, "you must be Captain Lance, Aves has told me so much about you," she said as she came over and extended a hand to the other blonde.

Sara accepted the handshake and replied, "She did? Well, Aves hasn't told me anything about you."

Ava looked between the two blondes and she bit the inside of her cheek. She wasn't quite sure how to process the sight of her girlfriend and crush shaking hands.

"Sara, this is Clarke Cameron," Ava said as they released each others' hands.

The doctor smiled at Sara and the captain tried to return it genuinely, She almost felt bad for instantly hating someone who was so nice, but only almost.

Sara turned to look at Ava then. Up close she looked more hurt than she had first thought, even if it was nothing life threatening. All she could think was that she wanted to be the one to take care of the agent and jealousy burned in her stomach when it occurs to her that the doctor was more qualified to do so the she would ever be.

"Are you sure you're okay, Ava?" Sara asked, trying desperately to ignore the presence of the blonde standing beside her.

The agent frowned slightly. She couldn't get passed the thought that there was something off about the captain. But they were friends so it made sense that she would be concerned about her. It surely couldn't have anything to do with the fact that she had just saw her kiss the doctor, right?

"I'm fine," Ava replied, "apart from being stuck on desk duty..."

Sara smiled weakly at her and said, "maybe you could come to the Waverider for movie night tonight since you're in for a boring couple weeks..."

"Sure," Ava replied easily. Even if she knew she wouldn't never have admitted it in the past, she actually enjoyed spending time with the Legends. It also helped that she now had a girlfriend to get her through the whole 'hopeless crush on the captain' thing. She had come to the conclusion that there was no way her feelings were returned since Sara had been so willing to tell her about her escapades in Camelot and it would hurt just a little less now when she had to listen to what the blonde got up to during missions. It was for this reason that she also asked, "can Clarke come as well?"

Sara felt the colour drain from her face and she knew that she had messed up wen the doctor smiled at her again. There was absolutely no reason that she could say no, other that the thought of Ava and Clarke acting like a couple on her ship made her want to tear her eyes out of their sockets...violently,

"Of course," the captain replied with a tight smile whilst thinking of more ways to murder Gary.

S

Sara threw a knife at the target and it cut directly through the bullseye.

Movie night was now tainted forever since she bore witness to Clarke sitting on Ava's lap, despite the fact that she had put out a seat specifically for the doctor. She had several times thought about saying that a doctor should be more aware of potentially hurting the already injured agent, but Ava didn't appear to be in much pain. She looked happy and it pissed Sara off to no end.

"Sara," Amaya called from behind her and Sara felt her hand twitch at the sound but she stopped herself from throwing the knife when her brain took over her reflex to attack.

She sighed and turned to see Amaya and Zari standing across the training room, each wearing very judgemental expressions.

"What?" she asked more harshly than was necessary.

"We couldn't help but notice that you invited Ava's girlfriend to movie night," Zari replied.

The captain gave Amaya an exasperated look but the other woman just shrugged as if to say that it wasn't her fault that the captain was the only person oblivious to her crush until it was too late.

"She was in the room when I asked Ava, how could i say no?" Sara replied and threw the last knife on the final word.

Amaya and Zari exchanged a look and silently agreed what needed to be said.

The captain rolled her eyes and went over to grab her knives, "you don't need to make up some plan to fix this, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," Amaya shot back.

"I'm a big girl, I can handle a crush," Sara said, whilst refusing to look at either of the totem bearers.

"On your best friend?" Zari asked.

"Ava is not my…" Sara's eyes widened and she trailed off. Could it really be possible that Agent Sharpe had become her best friend? She certainly found it easier to talk to the woman than she did with almost anyone else she knew and the thought of not talking to her about her day was painful, even if he would have to risk hearing about her relationship with the perfect doctor. "Oh my god, Ava is my best friend," she sighed and placed the knives down so she could wipe a hand over her face.

"Well your best friend is in the library, she said she needs to talk to you," Zari announced.

Sara took in a deep breath and swallowed against the butterflies in her stomach. Once again, the prospect of not seeing the agent was worse than seeing her and known that she was taken.

"Okay thanks for telling me," the captain sighed again and began the short walk from the training room. It wasn't too strange that the agent would show up to talk to her, but it was usually mission related when she did and she wasn't supposed to be in the field for a couple weeks. If this was a social call, like coming over for a glass of wine which hadn't happened since Camelot, she would have called first to make sure that the Legends were not busy with something.

"Hey," Ava called with an easy smile as the blonde captain stepped into the library.

She was in light blue jeans with rips at the knees and a red checkered shirt, which didn't help with the butterflies swarming inside Sara, she just hoped that the agent couldn't see her blushing as she walked over to her,

"Hey," Sara replied, she eyes the sling and a thought occured to her, one that would mean the agent would be able to come back to field work (which would mean more time with the Legends and less in the infirmary), "you know you could ask Gideon to heal that for you…"

"I'm afraid that Director Bennett has forbidden me from healing any agent without life threatening afflictions, Captain, he is adamant that there is a procedure that must be followed by bureau members," Gideon replied before Ava could say yes or no.

Ava just nodded in agreement and added, "I would have come to the Waverider first if Gideon was allowed to help me."

"You would have?" Sara asked, now blushing profusely at the thought that Ava would have come here before going to Doctor Cameron. Of course, her infatuated mind failed to consider that the Waverider had a supercomputer that could heal injuries almost instantly.

Agent Sharpe frowned, once again noticing that there was something off about Sara. She just nodded and decided to just push past it.

"This is actually what I came here to talk to you about," she said and used her good arm to gesture towards the sling. "Director Bennett has agreed that I can take the next two weeks off as vacation rather than having desk duty so Gary will be your team's handler until I get back."

"Oh," was all Sara could think to say, because it wasn't like she could say 'I can't go two weeks without seeing you, you should spend your vacation on the Waverider'.

"You can still call me if Gary does something particularly idiotic," Ava added with a small laugh.

"I wouldn't want to interrupt your recovery," Sara said, hoping that it didn't sound too bitter.

"Oh you don't need to worry about that, Clarke was on vacation any way so she offered to take care of me," Ava replied. She then tilted her head, surely she was imagining Sara clenching her jaw? There was on way that the captain liked her back after deflecting all of her attempts at flirting, right? She wasn't exactly subtle about it so she came to the conclusion that her feelings were one-sided and having Clarke meant that she could try and deal with being Sara's friend without yelling at her for sleeping with Guinvere…twice.

"Great," Sara said through gritted teeth, "well, I need to…go…plan our mission but…call me if you need anything…" she rambled as she walked away in an effort to hide the stray tear that was threatening to fall down her cheek.

Ava watched her go with her brow furrowed before she turned to look at the map and saw that there was no anachronism selected.

She considered going after Sara to see if she was okay, but it wasn't like she was her girlfriend and the captain had plenty of people on this ship who were more qualified to discuss whatever was going on with her. It was probably none of her business anyway.

So she just made a mental note to tell Gary to keep an eye on the captain before she opened a portal to leave the Waverider.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

-Three days later-

Sara tried desperately to focus on the crossword puzzle book in her lap but her eyes kept drifting to the console. She'd lost count of the number of times she came into the jumpship for some privacy and just ended up calling Ava.

The agent was a great listener and was actually able to provide some constructive advice for most of the things that Ava complained about.

The captain twirled the pen in her hand and tried to think of a reason she could press the call button.

When Ava was the Legend's handler, she didn't really need to think of an excuse to call her, but now that she was on vacation with her girlfriend, she couldn't just randomly call, even if she wanted to see Agent Sharpe's face more than she was willing to admit.

"Would you like me to call Agent Sharpe, captain?" Gideon asked once the blonde had officially been looking away from her book for a solid five minutes.

Sara deflated and fell back against the seat with an exasperated sigh, "no thank you, Gideon, I'll just finish the puzzle…"

The AI made no verbal reply but Sara was sure that she could sense a certain level of judgement coming from the supercomputer. She groaned and decided that the crush was actually driving her mad and she just threw the book aside and decided that the training room would be a better place to pass the time.

s

-Two days later-

Sara bit the inside of her cheek and stared at the wooden structure.

This seemed like a terrible idea, but she wasn't like she had ever shied away from terrible ideas before.

Their latest mission had gone pretty badly and Zari had ended up getting hurt (Gideon quickly made sure that she was fine). Usually in those situations, her debriefing with Ava would turn into a casual conversation that would make her feel better. She wouldn't feel like the captain who had failed to protect her team, she felt like that there was nothing that she could have done. After all, if Ava said that she did all that she could, then it had to be true.

The blonde shook her head to try and get out of her head before she closed her hand into a first and lifted it up to the door.

She wasn't proud that she had forced Gary to give her Ava's address, but the woman was her best friend apparently, so she was bound to find out where she lived eventually.

A couple seconds of hesitation later, she rapped her hand against the wood and sucked in a sharp breath as she clasped her hands together and started to wait.

Thirty seconds passed and Sara started to wonder how long she should wait until she assumed that Ava wasn't home or that she hadn't heard the sound and that she needed to knocked again. The blonde was in the midst of trying to decided which one was more plausible when the door was yanked open with more power than an injured woman had the right to.

The captain deflated when she realised that was because the blonde standing on the other side of the door wasn't injured.

"Clarke," the captain said through gritted teeth.

The doctor didn't seem to notice the hostility as she smiled easily at the other woman.

"Oh Sara, hi, Ava didn't tell me you was going to visit."

"She didn't know…I was just…" Sara started and her brain ran a mile a minute trying to figure out the most appropriate thing to say. It wasn't as if she could say 'I had a bad day and your girlfriend is the only person who makes me feel better'. "I just wanted to see how she is…" the captain finally settled on.

Clarke nodded, "that's perfect actually, I was just about to head off for a family thing that I couldn't reschedule. Aves insisted that she would be fine on her own, but maybe you wouldn't mind just staying with her? The painkillers are intense…"

"Oh…err…" Sara sputtered at the thought of actually getting to spend uninterrupted time with Agent Sharpe, it made her throat constrict a little.

The doctor didn't seem to get that impression, however, as she raised her hands quickly, "you don't have to obviously, I just figured that you two were close since Ava talks about you all the time."

The captain brought her hand up to wipe over her cheeks in a hope of briefly covering her deep blush if only for a moment, before she said, "of course I can."

The doctor furrowed her brow at the captain for a moment but she seemed to decide that she was imagining whatever she had picked up on as she opened the door wider to allow the other blonde access to the apartment.

The space was exactly what she was expecting from Ava. It was sparsely decorated with a few pictures here and there of who she assumed must be the agent's family, but other than that there was not much evidence that this was anything more than a show apartment. Somehow though, Sara felt like she was so much closer to Ava now that she had seen it.

As they made it through the apartment, Sara became increasingly aware of the sound of a TV playing a distinctly Disney movie and she smiled to herself at the thought of the agent potentially crying at some animated flick.

"Ava," Clarke called as she and the captain entered the living room and Sara's smile widened when she saw that the badass agent was indeed watching The Lion King.

Said badass agent looked over the back of the couch and frowned when she saw that there was more than one blonde entering the room. The bruise on the side of her face had definitely gone away, but Sara could see that she still looked incredibly tired so it was probably a good thing that she had taken two weeks off.

"Sara?" Ava asked, but her frown had quickly started to turn into a smile when she saw that it was the woman who she had been hoping would call her at the end of everyday. Even if she knew she turned into a mess whenever she talked to the beautiful blonde, she knew that she would never pass up the opportunity to answer a call from the Waverider. Seeing her standing in her apartment somehow made the yearning to talk to her grow and she felt a pang of guilt run through her. She really did like Clarke a lot, but with Sara, she could see herself feeling something more and as long as she believed that, she knew that she could never get truly serious with the doctor.

"Hey," Sara replied with a nervous smile, "I just thought I would come and see how you are…"

Ava shifted more so that she was in a seating position so that she could look more at the captain. There was definitely off about her this time, but now she knew what it was. The blonde only looked tentative when she had something that she wanted to talk about, which was usually when something went wrong on her mission and someone in her team got hurt. However, the agent was once again very aware that they were not the only two people in the room and that she couldn't just launch into asking Sara what was wrong since the guarded captain would never tell her in front of the doctor she barely knew.

"I'm great," Ava replied.

Clarke looked between the two women, she could swear that friends shouldn't be this awkward around each other but she decided that this was something that didn't need to be dealt with right now. Now, her girlfriend needed company whilst she went and did something important and Sara showed up at the right time. That could only prove thats she was a good friend, right?

"I thought maybe since I'll be gone for a few hours, you two could catch up until I get back," Clarke supplied when it became evident that neither woman was going to say anything.

"You don't have to, Sara…" the agent started to protest, after all, it didn't seem safe that the captain would be alone from her band of children for so long.

"I don't mind," the ex-assassin replied with an easy smile which brought back the butterflies in her stomach that she had hoped she had gotten over.

"I'll be back soon, babe," Clarke said now that it seemed that Ava had no objections, she walked over to the couch to place a chaste kiss on the agent's lips and Sara adamantly looked at the ground as she resisted clenching and unclenching her fists. "Don't forget to take your pills in about half an hour."

Ava just nodded and watched the doctor grab her purse and coat before she made a swift exit from the apartment.

Once the sound of the front door closing filled the apartment, Sara felt the tension fall away from her body and she allowed her feet to take her over to the single seat next to the couch.

As she did so, Ava reached forwards to grab the remote and paused the movie and the captain quirked an eyebrow at her.

"You're seriously pausing Hakuna Matata?" she asked exasperatedly.

The agent just rolled her eyes with a fond smile on her lips and used her good arm to pull her blanket more comfortably around her as she shifted to look more fully at Sara.

"I assume you didn't stalk me just to watch Lion King?" she asked.

"I didn't stalk you…" Sara shot back, "I just…asked Gary where you live and…then showed up without permission…"

"Right," the injured woman laughed, "you could have just called and asked."

"That would have been too easy," the ex-assassin replied with the grin on her face widening. She knew that this was a good idea, it wasn't obvious just how much the agent improved her mood until she was without her and the other Legends had certainly caught on.

Ava rolled her eyes playfully and asked, "so…what happened?"

Sara frowned, "what do you mean?"

"You have that look you get when something happened on a mission, I can't have wine with my painkillers but I can still listen…"

The captain bit the inside of her cheek, how had she not realised that this woman was her best friend sooner? They literally knew how the other person was feeling without verbal confirmation, not that Sara had noticed that her best friend was in love with her until she was unavailable.

"Zari got hurt…" Sara replied and looked down at her lap.

"How is she now?" Ava asked, she didn't need to know the specifics of the mission since most anachronisms were the same when boiled down to the basics and she knew that Sara hadn't come to her apartment to discuss the mission itself.

"She's fine…but…"

"Sara, there's no but, if she's fine then you have nothing to feel guilty about," the agent cut her off before she could start spiralling into all of the reasons that it was her fault.

"I should have been there…I was distracted," Sara sighed, but her eyes widened slightly when she realised what she had just said. She hadn't meant to admit that she was distracted, because Ava would want to know by what and she couldn't say that she had been consumed by her awareness of her feelings for her for the past week.

"Distracted?" Ava frowned, "by what?"

"Er…" Sara shifted uncomfortably and finally looked away from her lap and up the agent. For the first time, she noticed that the woman was in her PJs surrounded by and array of snacks. Her hair was in a messy bun and she wasn't wearing any makeup at all. She was utterly beautiful and Sara thought for a moment that she could just admit the truth and she would get all of her problems resolved. If Ava still liked her, she might just break up with Clarke and then she could come to the Waverider and Sara could spend the next week taking care of her. However, Sara bit the inside of her cheek forcibly to stop herself from thinking about making Ava break up with her girlfriend. Honestly, what could she offer Ava that the doctor couldn't? The agent had a chance at a normal life with her, and maybe that was exactly what she wanted?

"Sara?" Ava prompted and reached over to place her hand on the woman's knee.

Said woman felt a jolt go through her body, but it was only momentary as Ava moved her hand away once she was sure that she had gotten her attention.

The shorter woman swallowed thickly and said, "I…err…kind of have a crush on someone at the bureau…"

Agent Sharpe stared at he blankly for a moment. All she wanted to do was find out who it was and personally go and fire them so that they never had a chance of actually going out with Sara, but that wouldn't be fair would it? With how close the pair had gotten since 'Beebo Day' she was sure that she would have been able to tell if her feelings were returned, so it wasn't fair for her to ruin the captain's chance at happiness just because she spent most of her day wondering what her lips felt like, now would it?

"Oh, that's…great…" Ava replied, hoping that each word didn't sound quite as bitter as they did coming out of her mouth, "you should ask them out and you'll be less distracted."

"I…" Sara began, but she faltered, she was about to say that they were taken but she didn't know the name of any other agent who was currently in a relationship and she had no doubt that Ava would ask who it was. "I'm not sure if they're into me," she decided.

Ava tilted her head, "you do you remember that you slept with the Queen of France?"

Sara almost laughed when she detected a hint of jealousy mixed with disapproval in the agent's voice which she seemed to be trying to keep neutral, but instead she just smiled.

"This is different…it could be something real," she decided to say, and looked down at her lap as her mind imagined a scene in which was not sat on the single chair, but was instead cuddled as closely as possible to the agent on the couch.

"That's great," Ava smiled tightly, "who is it? I might be able to help…introduce you…"

The captain gritted her teeth when she realised that there were not too many Time Bureau agent's whose names she actually knew. There had been one or two times when Ava and Gary had each been unavailable and the Legends had needed to ask another agent for help with whatever they did wrong that week, but they were not exactly memorable.

"Tamsin," Sara replied, trying not to cringe as it said it. She was only vaguely certain that it was a real person after all.

"Agent Harper?" Ava asked with a deep set frown. Thomasina 'Tamsin' Harper was certainly a capable agent, but she didn't have anything that she didn't have…other than the fact that she was probably much nicer to the Legends than 'little Miss Time Bureau' had been. The woman tried not to sigh when it occurred to her that her first impression might have ruined any chance she might have had with the captain, even if they were now close friends, it was very possible that it prevented Sara from seeing her in a romantic light.

"Yes," Sara replied tentatively, very much hoping that Ava wasn't testing her so that she could call her out on her lie.

"That's…great…she's…great…" Ava said. She wasn't tempted to say that Tamsin was straight, but once again she felt like it would be selfish to lie.

"Yeah," Sara replied uncomfortably.

"I'll try and call her tomorrow and give her your number if you…want me to?" Ava asked awkwardly, she hated playing the role of the supportive friend right now.

Sara nodded and a silence passed between them before the captain's gaze fell onto the meerkat and lion on the screen and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"You know, I'm supposed to be here to take care you of you, so you should take your pain killers and we can watch the animals sing," the blonde said as she rose from the seat to pick up the prescription from the coffee table.

Ava resisted the urge to sigh in relief at the change in topic and extended her hand to take the two pills that were offered to her.

As the agent swallowed them, Sara fell back into her seat and pressed play on the remote, though she was mentally berating herself for inventing a crush rather than just being mature and admitting the truth.

It wasn't long until the pills began to take effect and Ava felt her eyes close and drowsiness took over and Sara found herself looking more at the adorable sleeping agent more than at the TV.

The captain sighed and shook her head when she realised what she was doing and she stood to pull the blanket further over the woman before she sat back down and looked fully at the TV.

After all, she couldn't be sat staring at Ava when her girlfriend returned in about an hour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are much appreciated, they really help with motivation :D  
> Also feel free to send me prompts @withgirl-sq on Tumblr or just generally talk to me about Avalance lol


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

-Two days later-

"You made up a crush?!" Amaya asked in exasperation.

Sara closed her eyes in frustration and looked up from the book she had been enjoying, now she was wishing that she had decided to read it in her quarters instead of the library.

"I told Zari that in confidence," the captain replied while attempting to look as unaffected as possible, but she still scowled slightly at said woman who was walking in timidly behind Amaya. She hadn't planned to tell anyone about her major fuck up, but the wind-totem bearer had just happened to catch her when she'd had a tiny bit too much vodka. Not quite enough to just go over to Ava's apartment and spill her feelings, but enough that she was feeling a little more talkative than usual.

"We're trying to help you here, Sara," Zari supplied.

The captain narrowed her eyes and placed her book aside. She could tell that neither woman would be leaving until they had a less drunken explanation for what possessed her to tell Ava that she had feelings for one of her co-workers.

"How exactly are you going to help me?" Sara asked and pushed herself to to edge of her seat, already planning a swift escape from the pure judgement that was currently being aimed at her.

"By getting you to admit your feelings to Ava," Amaya replied, "which you can't do if she thinks that you like Agent…"

"Agent Harper," Sara said and Amaya rolled her eyes.

"You told her that you like Tamsin? You could have made someone up at least!"

"Ava trained a lot of the agents, she would know if I made someone up," Sara defended, "plus…Tamsin is nice…"

Zari tilted her head and asked, "what does that mean?"

"Ava gave her my number and she's kind of…been texting me since yesterday," the captain replied. The texts were not anything special, mostly just the awkward stage of getting to know someone, but Sara couldn't help but feel bad for even engaging. If Tamsin did end up returning her 'feelings' then it could get messy all round, but she couldn't tell Ava that she like Agent Harper and then not reply to her messages. Plus, there was always the possibility that something could come of it. Tamsin could be her date to Ava and Clarke's wedding, Sara thought bitterly.

Amaya pinched the bridge of her nose, "you're actually an idiot."

Sara raised her eyebrows and replied, "you know that you shouldn't be talking to your captain like that?"

"When the captain makes stupid decisions, I think I have the right to," Amaya shot back, "you have been miserable since you found out about Ava and Clarke and the only way that you'll ever feel better is if you tell her."

"Tell her what, Amaya?" Sara said in a tone that was dangerously close to yelling, "oh Ava, I know that you have this perfect girlfriend, but there is a chance that I'm in love with you so you can just break up with her now. Why would she want to be with a beautiful doctor when she could be dating a damaged ex-assassin who occasionally gets possessed by a demon!"

"Sara," Amaya said softly and took a step closer to the blonde, who instantly tensed and looked down at her lap. Her brain was catching up with the fact that she had just said all of her doubts aloud and she was now feeling more than uncomfortable.

Amaya looked over to Zari, who looked utterly terrified at the display of emotion and she rolled her eyes at her, silently telling her that she was a coward before she took another step towards the captain who seemed as though she was using all of her efforts to hold back tears.

"Sara, you know that Ava likes you back, it's silly for both of you to pretend that you don't have feelings for each other," the totem holder said softly.

The blonde swallowed hard and finally looked back up to Amaya, having had successfully stopped herself from crying, and she shook her head.

"I really appreciate your concern, but I'm fine. I don't want to be one of Ava's regrets. Sure, she might like me now, but if we ever became serious…" she trailed off and looked back down at her lap. She knew that this was something that people thought she had move beyond, but it was difficult to get past the idea that everyone she loved got hurt in some way. What if she got possessed by Mallus and hurt Ava? What if she did something stupid like sleeping with someone else because she was too afraid to be committed? The thought that she could be the source of any kind of pain for Ava hurt Sara more than she thought she was capable of feeling. At least as friends, albeit it 'best friends', she didn't run quite the same risk of hurting the agent with her idiotic actions.

"What if you hurt her more by never telling her how you feel?" Zari asked.

Sara bit the inside of her cheek and just shook her head again. She had no retort for that other than the incessant doubt that she felt whenever she seriously thought about starting a relationship.

"I'm going to finish this in my quarters," Sara said and reached forward to grab her book which she knew that she probably would not be reading now.

The blonde was out of the room before either totem holder could say anything further and they shared a look of exasperation.

"That went well," Zari shrugged.

Amaya rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, "what are we going to do?"

The other woman just shrugged again and asked, "just wait it out?"

s

-One week later-

The two weeks were over and Sara wasn't sure if she was relieved or terrified.

On one hand, it wasn't too fun having Gary as the Legend's handler, he was afraid at every little thing that they did. Ava had learnt to roll with the punches the longer that she spent with the team and that meant that she when she occasionally came on missions with them, as per the request of the director, she didn't report any minor rule breaking.

Gary, though, seemed to be of the opinion that every little thing would break time and it didn't help that Sara was very aware that he was the reason that she felt so unbearably jealous all the time.

"Infiltrating a manner doesn't sound too hard," Nate announced, which brought the captain out of her thoughts. The Legends were all standing around the main console waiting for her to give them a 'send off' but they also knew that the would have to wait for their handler to arrive because they had been assigned a level 9. Anything over eight would automatically mean supervision, which Sara usually didn't mind.

As if on cue, a portal opened across the room and woman stepped out in a pant suit and her hair in a perfect bun and Sara felt her breath catch in her throat. She knew that she had it bad when she started to think that Ava even looked hot in the suit that she had insulted upon their first meeting, of course, the fact that the agent now smiled at the team probably helped with her appearance.

"Hey," Agent Sharpe said and everyone in the room returned her smile until she looked over at Sara and furrowed her brow when she saw that the captain looked like a deer caught in headlights. She had been allowed to take her arm out of the sling two days ago and she had been tempted to cut her vacation short, but she knew that it wouldn't bode well for her relationship if she actively chose the Waverider over her girlfriend, even if it was a choice that she thought would be worryingly easy. There was a time when she loved Clarke Cameron, but that time had passed and she almost felt bad for even pretending that things were how they used to be. She definitely liked the woman and she made good company but she wasn't sure if that was something that she could stake her future on.

"Gary didn't give me any details," she announced when Sara didn't make any attempt to say anything, "he just said that I needed to report to the Waverider for a level nine."

Silence passed for a couple seconds as the team waited for Sara to explain their plan, but when she said nothing, Nate frowned and said:

"The anachronism is in 2062, an Ancient Grecian artefact is being sold at a private auction. Long story short is that without it, someone accuses someone else of stealing it and kills them and then boom, it's the end of the Grecian empire and modern civilisation as we know it. So, we just need to get it back," he explained, "we're just going as guests to the dinner that is happening before the auction so you might need to change if you're coming with us…"

Ava seemed to finally notice that all of the Legends were dressed formally and she felt a slight blush adorn her cheeks when she realised that Sara was wearing a red dress.

"Okay…what should I wear?" she asked, feeling rather self-conscious.

Sara noticed and she bit the inside of her cheek. The thought that Ava would be self-conscious actually pissed her off because that meant that someone had made her feel that way and she wanted to introduce whoever it was to her bow-staff.

"I'll help you," Zari announced with a very obvious smirk on her face as she walked forward to grab Ava's arm and drag her towards the clothes fabricator.

Sara just narrowed her eyes at the woman's back. Even if she vowed that she would not try any ridiculous plan to get her and Ava together, the captain had a feeling that the totem holder wouldn't be able to resist the urge to at least try something.

S

As it turned out, Zari did exactly what Sara thought she would and she was already planning ways to punish the woman for subjecting her to the sight of Ava in a tight-fitting blue dress that accentuated all of the right places. If she wasn't sure that she was attracted to the agent before, all doubt was now gone and it didn't help that her beautiful hair was draped over her shoulder in the way that Sara found very distracting.

"Sara?" Ava asked.

The shorter blonde jumped and realised that the woman she had been staring at was currently talking to her through the comm link, thankfully, she didn't appear to be looking in her direction so she couldn't know that she had been staring.

She swallowed thickly and activated the device before she replied, "yes?"

"Can you meet me at the east corridor? Nate found the storage room on the blueprints," the agent replied.

Sara considered saying no but then Ava would definitely know that something was going on. They tended to pair off all the time on missions because they worked so well together and there was absolutely no reason why they couldn't now other than the fact that Sara wasn't sure that she could stand being so close to the woman in that dress.

"Sure," she replied and began making her way through the crowd. Honestly, this was no big deal, watching a movie with the woman had been far more intimate than this so she just needed to pull herself together!

"Are you okay, Sara?" Ava asked once the captain was in front of her.

The shorter blonde just smiled tightly and nodded, "I'm good…" she said before she began to walk down the hallway with no further explanation.

Ava frowned after the captain but she decided that whatever it was could wait until they wasn't on a mission that decided the fate of Western society so she just started following her.

However, the sound of boots hitting the floor gave her pause and she realised that Nate had been wrong when he said that there shouldn't be any guards here.

She reacted on instinct and reached forward to grab Sara's shoulder and spun her around. Her hand dropped to her waist and she pinned her against the nearest wall.

Sara stared at her with wide and confused eyes, she had been too deep in thought to hear the approaching guards.

Before, she could ask what the hell was going on, Ava's lips were on hers and she legitimately thought that she might pass out from the sheer bliss. Their lips fit so perfectly together and she the way that the taller woman used her hand on her waist to accommodate for the height difference.

A second longer and she would have raised her hand up to the other woman's neck and switched positions so that Ava was against the wall, but the intention was cut short by a deep voice:

"Oh that's hot."

Sara opened her eyes and saw two fully distracted guards and she suddenly caught on with what was happening. Ava didn't get the sudden urge to cheat on her girlfriend, she was just kissing her for the mission.

This was only confirmed when Ava removed her hand from Sara's waist and spun around to hit the closest guard straight in the face. As he fell to the ground, the ex-assassin's instincts took over and she launched forwards to knock out the other guy.

"Sorry…about that," Ava said awkwardly pointing at the wall that she had just pinned her friend against, she was trying to ignore just how much better it felt to kiss Sara than Clarke. There was no way that the captain felt the same way and Clarke didn't deserve this.

"It's cool," Sara said a little too quickly and the agent just nodded before she turned on her heels and began walking towards the store room.

Sara brought a finger up to her tingling lips and she closed her eyes for a moment. At least she could pretend that there was a chance that the crush would fizzle out, but now she knew for a fact that this was not a crush.

She was irrevocably in love with Agent Ava Sharpe and she was screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed :)  
> There should be a few chapter left now so let me know if there's anything in particular you guys would like to see  
> And feel free to check me out/talk to me on Tumblr @Withgirl-sq


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

A lot had happened since what Sara mentally referred to as 'the incident'.

Director Bennett had been murdered by Gorilla Grodd, Rip was reinstated as an active agent, Kid Flash joined the Legends and Ava became Director Sharpe.

Mallus was still a major threat so the captain had better things to do than wallow in self-pity, but still, she found herself nursing a whiskey whilst her team slept following a surprisingly smooth string of missions.

Sara managed a couple hours of sleep before she woke drenched in sweat. But it was far from a nightmare that had woken her. Being personally 'congratulated' by Director Sharpe was certainly not unpleasant until the captain woke up aching for it to be real.

Since the revelation that she was actually in love with Ava, the captain no longer found herself attracted to men or women that she met on missions. The kiss (aka, the 'incident') only made it worse since she now knew what Ava's lips felt like. AT least before she would have been able to pretend that her feelings might have only arisen because Gary told her about Ava's, but with the memory of the then-agent's lips moving against her own, she now knew that nothing compared.

Sara groaned and closed her as she attempted to get some sleep before the next day of missions, but images of Ava wearing only a blazer popped into her head and her eyes shot open. She really needed to stop fantasising about her best friend, especially when said best friend was in a relationship.

With a deep breath, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone.

Her fingers quickly found the screen she wanted and her eyes scrolled over the last couple of messages.

She had been messaging Tamsin Harper on and off for a few weeks now but it never went beyond casual flirting, usually as a way to get her mind off Ava.

She knew that if she messaged now, the agent would get the wrong idea since was about 2 am as far as she could guess, so she just sighed as she locked the phone and threw it aside. She wasn't sure what she wanted to say anyway.

Every time she messaged the agent, it reminded her that it was Ava who connected them in the first place, which could only mean that she didn't feel the same way.

The blonde was about to stand to refill her tumbler but she was stopped when a portal opened in the middle of the library.

Her mouth instantly went dry. She hadn't really seen the object of her thoughts in person since her promotion so it had been about a week since she'd felt the gut wrenching in her stomach as if her feelings were somehow been renewed all over again.

However, she quickly realised that something was wrong when she saw how messy the director's hair was. She was dressed in work out clothes for some reason and she looked somewhat pale with giant bags under her eyes. If Sara wasn't overwhelmed by worry for the woman she loved, she was sure that she would be staring opening at the toned stomach and arms that she had never had a chance to see before. She mentally filed it away for later to internally freak out over.

"Ava?" Sara asked and went over to place a hand on her arm.

The director blinked, seemingly only just realising that she wasn't alone and she stared at Sara or a moment ash her tired mind tried to catch up with why she was on the timeship.

"Agent Thomas said he left his file here…I just came to get it…Sorry, I didn't think anyone would be awake…"

Sara watched the skits director with concern playing across her features.

"When was the last time you slept?" Sara asked before the woman could move over to the desk.

Ava frowned and drew her eyebrows together.

"If you need to think about it then it has been too long," the captain announced and used her grip on the woman's arm to pull her over to the couch she had just been sat on. She did consider offering her own bed for the night, but she was pretty sure her own sleeping problems would be worse if her bed smelled like the object of her dreams.

"I really don't have time, Sara…" Ava tried to protest but it was accompanied with a yawn.

Sara sat the taller woman down and took the seat next to her, determined t move once she was sure that the director wasn't going back to work.

"You need sleep," the ex-assassin said matter-of-factly , somewhat bitterly thinking that Ava's doctor girlfriend should be the one enforcing this, "you should go home and sleep."

Ava shook her head and leaned it against the back of the couch.

"If I go home, Clarke will lecture me about 'maintaining good health and lowering stress' and I don't have time for lowering stress right now," she said once again with a yawn.

Sara couldn't help it, she smiled. Ava didn't want to spend time with Clarke, granted it was for work, but the bitter part of her still felt good about it.

"She's right though, Ava," Sara said reluctantly, "even the director of the Time Bureau needs to sleep and…"

The captain looks dover to Ava to continue, but she realised that halfway through her sentence, the woman had fallen asleep. She allowed herself about five seconds to admire the sheer adorable-ness.

She was about to stand to get the director a blanket, but Ava's head lolled so it lost its position on the back of the couch and it fell straight onto Sara's lap. The captain looked on with wide eyes, sure she was about to wake up from the impact. But the director instead just adjusted her body position in her sleep and pulled herself further onto Sara's lap.

The White Canary finally relaxed when she realised that the exhausted woman was still asleep.

However a moment later, she realised that she would be trapped with Ava on her lap if she wanted to make sure that she stayed sleeping and she sighed.

She could swear that the director did shit like this on purpose at this point.

s

After spending six hours resisting the urge to touch Ava's hair, Sara was pretty exhausted, but it was nothing that caffeine wouldn't fix. However, now she knew what it was like to have Ava Sharpe cuddled up to her, so Sara had another thing to add to the list of reasons that they would be perfect together. Of course she also had a mental list of the reasons that they couldn't be together, but with the woman so close to her, she couldn't think of a single one.

A groaning made Sara look down as Ava was clearly in the process of waking up. The blonde wasn't entirely sure if she wanted that. One one hand, her legs were numb, on the other if Ava woke up, she would leave and it could be a while until she saw her again since it made more sense for the director to spend time with her girlfriend rather than her best friend, Even if Sara resented that she couldn't be both.

"Hey," she said as consciousness appeared to return to the formerly exhausted woman. She didn't look great but she no longer looked like she was moments away from passing out.

Ava blinked a couple times and smiled at Sara as she tried to figure out what was happening. There was a split second where her mind neglected the fact that she had never actually had the courage to ask the captain out and she allowed herself to enjoy how it felt to lay her head on her lap. However, a second later, she shot up quickly into a sitting position as everything came back to her.

"Oh god, I fell asleep on you," Ava sighed and placed her head in her hands.

"Hey, it's all good, what are…friends for?" Sara replied as she placed a hand on the director's shoulder, trying not to blush at the fact that this was the first time that she had touched Ava's bare skin, the workout outfit was really distracting. "Seriously though Aves, you need to actually sleep every night you know?"

"The bureau is a mess right now," Ava sighed, "there is so much to do, I really don't have time for anything other than work."

"And if you burn out, you won't be able to fix things, you could try some delegating so you don't end up on the Waverider in…workout clothes?" Sara replied and used the brief moment that Ava continued to look down to openly look at her stomach. She knew the the director must work out, but she was not expecting this and it certainly wouldn't help with the whole fantasising about her best friend thing.

Ava looked up at Sara with blush moving across her face as she subconsciously moved her arms to cover her stomach and the captain was tempted to tell her that wouldn't be necessary but stopped herself.

"I dropped coffee on my shirt and I didn't want to wake Clarke up…"

Sara stopped herself from sighing and asked a question that had been bothering her for a while now, "so do you and Clarke like…live together now?"

"Oh no, she's having her apartment redecorated and I said that it made more sense to stay at my place instead of getting a hotel…" Ava stammered. She knew she shouldn't feel bad about talking about her relationship with her friend, but when she was still very much in love with the ex-assassin she couldn't help but feel terrible that she would rather talk to her than to Clarke. Sometimes she could swear that Sara looked to be physically in pain whenever she talked about her girlfriend, but if the woman felt the same she would have told her by now since Sara Lance was not afraid of anything.

A silence passed between the pair before Sara seemed to remember her original point and she said, "you really need to delegate to someone so that you actually survive the week…"

Ava sighed and nodded as she pushed herself to her feet.

"You're probably right, but right now I need to make sure I'm not wearing this for my meeting with the president," the director said as she looked down at herself rather subconsciously. Sara noticed and she looked down as she felt the urge to do things that would make the director believe just how beautiful she was.

The moment passed and she decided to go with her usual flirty deflection tactic, "I don't know Aves, that look is pretty persuasive," Sara said and the taller woman turned bright red.

"I…I should…go…" Ava said as the usually confident tripped her way over to the desk to grab the file that she had originally come for all those hours ago.

Sara smiled at the adorable gay stammering, she was really beginning to question how she had never seen Ava's attraction to her before, just as everyone else. It was kind of comforting to know that the director was still somewhat attracted to her, even if she probably didn't love her anymore like Gary claimed.

"I'll call you later,: Ava sighed once she had the file in hand and pressed some buttons on her Time Courier to take her back to her apartment.

As soon as the portal closed, Sara groaned tiredly and fell back against the couch. As good as it was spending time with the director after a week, she couldn't help but think that she was now slightly more in love with her than she had been before.

A few moments passed and Sara went through her ritual of listing the reasons why Clarke was better than her, and it somehow ended with _I bet she's a cat person._

The captain rolled her eyes and remembered what she was half planning to do earlier to get her mind off Ava. Maybe if she was with someone else, then she could go back to being friends with Ava without the weirdness. She hated that she both missed her desperately and prayed that she wouldn't see her so her feelings would stay at bay (not that they really did).

Before she could change her mind, the former assassin made short work of finding her phone and shot of a text to Agent Harper-

_Hey Tamsin, want to go out for dinner with me tomorrow night? - Sara._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are kudos are always very much appreciated XD


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Re-posting this chapter because I screwed up the last one by pressing paste twice lol hope this clears up any confusion :)  
> Second scene is heavily inspired by Friends :)

Chapter five

Ava decided to take Sara's advice to delegate some of the more inane tasks to other agents.

That meant that she actually got home at a decent hour. She sighed in relief and sank onto her couch.

The director looked over to the clock, it was 6pm and Clarke only just finished work. She didn't have a Time Courier so it was going to take her about twenty minutes to get home.

Ava frowned as she considered that she could just go and get the doctor, but she wasn't too anxious to spend time with her. She certainly liked spending time with Clarke but she didn't feel like she needed to like she did with Sara. She knew that if she was supposed to get the captain today she would be a mix of excited and nervous.

Ava sighed when she realised that she was allowing her mind to run wild, this was one of the downsides of having free time, it allowed her to think about the state of her relationship which led to her feeling guilty. She'd been in love with Clarke at one point and she thought it would be simple for her just to continue being her girlfriend, but she knew that things couldn't go back to how they were. Not since she met Sara Lance.

Ava just wished that her mind didn't keep going back to how perfect the kiss felt.

Every time she did, she felt like she needed to tell Clarke that it had happened. It wasn't exactly cheating because it was necessary to the mission, but it was undeniably emotional cheating especially when she was tempted to go in for another kiss.

She sighed at herself when she realised she was thinking about Sara's lips again.

She had a date with Tamsin tonight, Ava reminded herself, maybe seeing her with someone else would allow her to finally be happy with Clarke.

Ava's eyes drifted over to the packed bags on the other side of the room. The doctor was supposed to be going home the next day and the director felt guilty that she was relieved about that fact. She had considered that she shouldn't find it a chore to live with her girlfriend, but when every time they were together, Ava found herself thinking about Sara, she knew that it would probably be better for her conscience if she didn't live with Clarke, at least for now.

The sound of a key in the lock brought Ava out of her pity-fuelled reverie and she sat up straighter as if Clarke would know she was thinking about Sara if she was slouching.

Heels clicked against the hallway floor and the doctor made her way into the living room. Clarke frowned when she found Ava sat on the couch and the director frowned back at her. The woman was usually happy to see her.

"Hey, I didn't think you would be home," she said.

"Well I do live her," Ava replied hoping to lighten the mood, but the doctor remained tense as her eyes drifted over to her bags. The director tilted her head and rose from the couch to go and stand in front of her girlfriend. She placed a hand on her forearm and asked, "is everything okay?"

The doctor frowned down at the contact and sighed as she said, "I got a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic."

Ava's hand slipped away and she said, "oh…I didn't know you were looking for other jobs…"

"I forgot I even applied," Clarke shrugged, "it was a couple months before we got back together."

Ava nodded slowly and asked, "are you going to take it?"

The doctor sighed and began fidgeting with her hands, it was never easy to admit something that had been playing on your mind for a while. She was about to get confirmation for her suspicions and she wasn't too sure what she wanted the answer to be. On one hand, it wasn't too long ago that she was in love with Ava Sharpe but on the other hand, there was something different in their relationship this time and she knew that things was Captain Sara Lance.

Ava was more relaxed around the ex-assassin than she had ever seen her before. The rules seemed to be less important, she was pretty sure that if she had told her to delegate she would have gotten a speech about how the director couldn't possibly trust other people with her jobs. Clarke was sure that she should be resentful that her girlfriend had listened to Sara, but she wasn't, which was probably all the proof that she needed that they didn't belong together, along with the way in which Ava looked at the captain of the Waverider.

"I think that I have to take it, Ava," Clarke sighed and walked over to plop herself onto the couch.

Ava furrowed her brow and went over to sit next to her.

"Why would you have to take it?"

Clarke inspected the woman for a moment, praying that the lost connection went both ways, if not then what she was about to say had the potential to be heartbreaking or it could just be an intense relief to both of them.

"When you asked me out I thought we could go back to how things used to be, you know? Like I always assumed we would get back together eventually anyway, but it's not how it used to be and I don't think I can pass up this opportunity on the off chance that it starts to feel the same again," Clarke said, basically exactly how she had been practicing since she found out she got the fellowship.

Ava furrowed her brow as she tried to take in the fact that Clarke was vocalising every anxiety she'd had for a while now.

"Are you breaking up with me?" She asked uncertainly.

The doctor smiled at the woman sadly and said, "I don't think that this is strong enough to work long distance."

"It wouldn't have to be long distance, I have my Time Courier, it would be easy…"

Clarke silenced the director with a single finger to her lips and asked, "you would break protocol to see me?"

Ava swallowed hard and looked down, with all the times she used the Time Courier to visit the Legends, she forgot that there were indeed strict protocols involved, one fo which she broke only half an hour ago when she used it to get home.

"I guess not…" Ava sighed and fell back against the couch.

"Look Ava, I'll always love you but I don't think I'm in love with you anymore and I'm pretty sure you feel the same way."

Ava sighed, she wanted to argue that she didn't want to break up. She needed to not be single when Sara was going on a date with Tamsin fucking Harper. But she realised how selfish that was.

Clarke was her real first love so it didn't seem right to use her to try and get over her current love, especially when it wasn't working.

"I…tried…" Ava said just loud enough to be heard, she was ashamed of going out with someone on the off chance that she would fall for her again.

"You should go and talk to Sara, Aves," Clarke said with a small smile, she was suddenly very relaxed. She'd been stressing about this all day and she was sure that she would feel instant regret when she broke up with Ava Sharpe, but she didn't so she finally knew that she had made the right choice.

"Why would I go and talk to Sara?" Ava stammered with wide eyes.

Clarke laughed and shook her head as she stood from the couch.

"You have thrown yourself in front of bullets, you can tell Sara Lance that you're in love with her," the doctor said as she leaned down to press a kiss to the director's cheek, "I'll collect my stuff tomorrow so you can mull that over."

Ava blinked a couple times and heard the door shut before she even noticed that Clarke had walked away.

The woman frowned and tried to figure out if any of that had really happened.

S

Sara felt like she should be nervous. She should be tapping the side of her glass in anticipation for the arrival of her date. She should be worrying over whether or not the red dress she chose was the right choice, if her date would like her hair and makeup, but instead she was leaning against the bar already feeling slightly buzzed.

Tamsin had texted her to say she would be 15 minutes late because she couldn't escape work on time and the captain took the opportunity to drink. She figured that her tolerance meant she would be fine for the actual date, but she was already beginning to feel like she may have misjudged considering the drinking she may have or may not have done while getting ready.

"Hey Sara," someone breathed from her side, obviously having had rushed and the captain swallowed hard against her guilt. She should be relieved that her date had shown up but she wasn't, she figured she could have gone and complained to her best friend if her date stood her up.

The captain plastered on a smile and turned around, "hey Tamsin," she replied and her eyes widened slightly at the sight before her. She obviously knew that Tamsin was attractive. But the bureau's dress code had a tendency to take the hot out of people. Her short black hair framed her tanned face perfectly and she was wearing a tight fitting black dress over her toned body. She was exactly the type of woman Sara would have happily slept with for one night but she couldn't help but think that she was the opposite of the type of woman she would go on a date with. She was the opposite of Ava.

"Sorry I'm late, work was crazy," Agent Harper, seemingly oblivious to the captain's guilt.

Sara smiled easily at her and replied, "don't worry about it, our table should be ready now anyway."

Tamsin nodded and awkwardly followed the blonde over to their table. She wasn't quite sure why she said yes to this to be honest considering that their texting conversations were not the most exciting things in the world. There was also the fact that there had been a rumour at the bureau for a while now that Director Sharpe and Captain Lance were dating. Of course, that was proven wrong when Doctor Cameron and Director Sharpe got together, but Tamsin had noticed Sara tended to talk more about Ava than would be normal if she didn't have feelings for her, even if they were best friends.

She had decided that it couldn't hurt to get a free dinner and make sure that her suspicions were correct or incorrect. If she was wrong then she could potentially build some kind of relationship with Sara and if she was right then she could try and match two idiots, which was exactly why she hadn't got too attached to the captain since Ava asked her if she could give her number to the blonde.

They got to the table that Sara had been shown to when she arrived and pulled out a chair and motioned for Tamsin to take it. The brunette smiled gratefully and sat down and watched as the blonde walked around to take the other seat.

They sat in silence for a few moments as they each looked at the drinks menu and Tamsin bit the inside of her cheek. She could tell that Sara was overthinking something in that moment and she was quite frankly dreading that the next hour or so of her life was going to be awkward.

Thankfully, the waiter came over to them with a pad ready and smiled widely as he asked, "can I get either of you any drinks?"

"I'll have a glass of rosé, please," Tamsin smiled and handed him the menu.

"Scotch on the rocks, please," Sara said and as she handed him the menu, she added, "make it a double."

The waiter nodded and walked away to go and fill the order and Sara smiled up at Tamsin, she was really beginning to think that this was a bad idea.

"So…how was work?" She asked as she shifted in her seat slightly, this was basically how they started conversations over text which didn't seem like a great start.

Tamsin shrugged, "it was okay, Director Sharpe gave me more work than usual today so I'm pretty tired, but I guess it's a good thing that the director wants me to do more stuff?"

Sara hoped that her cheeks didn't flush at the mention of her friend, she couldn't help but think that it was sad that Ava's job title could have that effect on her.

"Doesn't sound like a bad thing," Sara agreed, trying not to think about the possibility that Ava had given Tamsin more to do because she knew that they had a date tonight. Ava was far too professional to even think about doing something like that.

Tamsin nodded and took a moment to look around herself as she tried to pick something to say. She couldn't help but notice the expression on the captain's face, she now had no doubt that she had at least some feelings for the director and she couldn't be happier that she had stopped herself from becoming attached. She knew that she was attracted to Captain Lance, because really who wouldn't be, but at least she had stopped herself from becoming emotionally attached because it was painfully obvious that the woman wasn't attached to her even if she was trying.

Thankfully their drinks came before she had to think of something to say and she quirked an eyebrow as the blonde downed half of her scotch in one gulp. Sara's tolerance was legendary, but it was obvious that she had already been drinking before she arrived and there had to be a point where she actually got drunk.

The awkwardness continued for the next half an hour as they discussed the bureau and the Legends but didn't really get too deep with their personal lives and Sara continued to drink more than she ate. Tamsin was sure that they were reaching the point where Sara would be refused any more alcohol, but she also knew that her identity of White Canary wasn't exactly secret after the last two crises so she had to wonder if the waiter would be brave enough to cut off someone who could kick alien and Nazi ass.

She was in the middle of describing one of the Legends more ridiculous missions and Tamsin laughed as she asked, "and Director Sharpe didn't arrest you?"

Sara shook her head in a way that made it clear that she was indeed very much drunk, "Ava is actually softer around the Legends then she used to be, but her forehead does this adorable crinkling thing when she's trying to hold back how pissed she is."

Tamsin's eyebrows shot up, she knew plenty of agents who wouldn't use the word 'adorable' to describe Director Sharpe.

Sara frowned as if she realised what she had said, but her drunk mind wasn't quite fast enough to try and deny that she found Ava adorable, especially considering she was on a date with a woman who looked nothing like her.

"Adorable, huh?" Tamsin asked, figuring that this was the best opportunity she would have to steer the conversation towards Ava. Sara had mentioned her more than would be considered normal throughout the night, but this was the first opportunity to try and get the other woman to admit that maybe she was only on this date to get over her.

"Yeah she pretends to be scary but she does adorable stuff all the time, which is probably why Clarke loves her so much," Sara sighed and looked down to her lap rather childishly.

Tamsin had to hold back a laugh, even if she had lost a bet with a few other agents. They said that Sara was in love with Ava and Tamsin thought that it was just a simple crush, she could complain about losing her money when the other woman was sober.

"Do you love Director Sharpe?" Tamsin asked softly.

Sara was nodding before she could think about what she was doing, but when it did she cringed and looked up at the agent sat across from her. To her surprise, she didn't see any resentment at the fact that she had basically just admitted she was in love with another woman during their first date.

"Oh god," she sighed and placed her hands over her face, "I'm on date with a perfectly good woman and all I can think about is Ava and her stupid…Clarke."

Tamsin bit her lip, it was taking every ounce of professionalism to not laugh right now, especially as the other woman continued:

"I've saved the timeline, twice, why can't I get over Ava? I just want to be friends with her."

"You'll be fine, Sara, you just need to find some closure," Tamsin replied.

"Closure?" Sara repeated, as she tried to think of a single time when she had dealt with her emotions properly, "how do I get that?"

The agent shrugged and replied, "just tell Ava that you're over her and that you're happy for her."

"You're a genius," Sara said slightly too loudly and Tamsin considered that she should probably be stopping her from pulling out her phone when she was this drunk. However, she decided against it when she realised that even a drunk Sara could probably take her down if she tried to stop her from doing what she waned to do.

The captain frowned down at the screen as she intently looked for the contact which she would usually know was one of the first ones, but she finally managed to pressed the call button and placed it to her ear.

She waited a few seconds, her gut twisting with each ring until a beeping sound reached her ears and a woman informed her that the person she was calling was unavailable. She shifted in her seat and prepared for the next beep so that she could leave a message.

"Hey Ava," she slurred slightly after the beep, "it's Sara. I just wanted to call to say that I'm happy for you and your perfect doctor girlfriend. Oh and you should give Tamsin a promotion, she's like really smart. And see, I'm thinking of someone other than you and your adorable crinkle, so obviously I'm over you. I am over you!"

Sara's head lolled to the side with a triumphant smirk on her face and Tamsin couldn't help but wonder if she would look quite so smug when she remembered this the next day.

The blonde hung up the phone and basically threw it down to the table as Tamsin motioned for the waiter to bring them their cheque.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the support for this fic! I have three fics in the work (including the Love, Simon AU mentioned on my Tumblr XD).  
> I'll add an epilogue if you guys want it, so please let me know if you do :D  
> Also check me out on Tumblr @Withgirl-sq if you want to and I need to thank @Sanvers-Haught for all of her help with my random ideas :D

Chapter six

Ava paced her office for a few moments and bit her thumb nail as she tried to figure out what she wanted to do.

After Clarke left the night before, she was tempted to go and talk to Sara about the fact that her girlfriend had broken up with her, which she knew was more of an excuse to talk to the captain rather than because she was actually upset about it. She had thought that the end of her relationship would make her feel something, but the only correct emotion that she could identify was relief, which made her sure that Clarke had made the right choice and if she was right about that then surely she was right that a relationship between her and Sara could work? She wouldn't have told her to go and talk to the captain to go and have her heart broken right?

She'd ultimately stopped herself from going to the Waverider when she realised that she didn't know what time Sara would be back from her date, especially since she was fairly certain that she had made Tamsin late, and she also didn't know if the captain would be alone if she showed up unannounced.

She thought about texting her, but she realised that she had lost her phone over a week ago and had been too busy to really notice its absence from her life. She found it rather sad that she didn't really need a phone to talk to anyone other than Sara and since they hadn't really been in contact since she'd fallen asleep on her, she didn't really need her phone.

She shook her head and checked the time again, it was now 10 am and she knew for a fact that Tamsin started work at 9.30 am and had never been late since she started working for bureau. She knew personally how distracting Sara Lance could be, but she was also pretty sure that Tamsin's aim was to become director one day, which meant that there was no way that she would risk having any kind of blemish on her record.

She decided that she needed to talk to Sara and if she called her through the Waverider's comms system, the captain might think that it was for professional purposes, plus she knew for a fact that Gideon recorded everything and she was pretty sure that this wasn't a conversation that she wanted recorded.

She hadn't quite decided what it was that she wanted to say to the shorter woman after she revealed that she was single, she supposed that it would depend how Sara's date went.

Before she could change her mind, she entered the necessary information into the Time Courier and shot a look over to the anachronism map displayed on her OLED wall and made sure that the Legends didn't have any missions selected. Once she was sure that they were not currently doing something ridiculous, she opened the portal and stepped through it onto the Waverider.

She looked around the empty corridor for a moment, trying to figure out why the ship was currently silent, or as silent as it could be. She was pretty sure the team would at least be awake by now and she was close enough to the kitchen to be able to hear them if they were all in there. She frowned as she walked down to the kitchen, sure that she would find the team having breakfast, but it was completely empty.

"Good morning, Director Sharpe," Gideon greeted before she could continue her search, "if you are looking for the team, Captain Lance has instructed them to spent the day in present Star City and not to engage in any missions until further notice."

Ava's frown deepened at this and she looked up at the ceiling, "is Captain Lance with them?"

The AI was silent for a moment as if she was considering if she was breaking any protocol, but Gideon finally replied, "the captain is currently in the Library trying to stave off the effects of a hang over."

The director wasn't sure if she should frown or smirk at this, she knew that it took a lot of alcohol to give the legendary Sara Lance a hangover, and if she felt the need to drink so much, then the date had obviously not gone too greatly. But she also knew that people tended to make questionable decisions when they were drunk.

She took a second to decide if she should ask if Agent Harper had been on the Waverider recently but she decided that she should just ask Sara how her date went like a friend who wasn't in love with her would.

"Thank you, Gideon," she sighed, "could you please fabricate some aspirin and a glass of water if Sara hasn't already had some?"

"Of course, director," Gideon replied and a moment later, what she asked for appeared in the fabricator.

Ava rolled her eyes at the fact that Sara would be suffering from a hangover without doing anything about it and she allowed her feet to make her way to the Library. As she got closer, she felt her anxiety rise, she wasn't sure why but she felt like seeing the captain while she didn't have a girlfriend would give her no excuse to ignore her feelings, unless of course, Sara was planning to have another date with Tamsin.

She finally made it into the Library and had to stop herself from laughing at Captain Lance, who was sitting at the desk with her head in her arms. She walked over to the desk and lightly placed the glass onto the table, along with the two tablets.

Sara frowned and looked up at the person interrupting her wallowing and she smiled involuntarily at Director Sharpe.

"Hey," she said in a hoarse voice, "what are you doing here?"

Ava felt her heart flutter at how happy the other woman seemed to be at the fact that she was here but she rationalised that they were close friends, so obviously she would be glad to see her after a week.

"I…" she trailed off, she was here to tell Sara that Clarke broke up with her but there was a huge part of her mind screaming that she shouldn't do that until she heard about her date first. She wasn't sure that she could handle being single if Sara was getting into a relationship, "I had some time before my meeting so I thought I would come and see how your date went."

Sara frowned and reached forward to take the aspirin she had been in too much pain to go and get herself. She couldn't help but think how Ava must make an amazing girlfriend, she always seemed to know exactly when she needed something and how to make her feel better.

"I don't really remember much of it…" she sighed and Ava laughed as she walked over to fall down onto the couch, her hand instantly made contact with a device that she supposed she should have been looking for in the last week.

She pulled up the phone that must have fallen out of her pocket as she slept on the captain but Sara didn't seem to notice what she was doing as she was deep in thought, trying to remember what it was that the alcohol had erased. She'd woken up in her own bed this morning with a text from Tamsin assuring her that nothing happened, but she was awfully vague about what happened. Honestly, all Sara could remember was the taste of all of the drinks she'd had, though they didn't taste quite as nice as they did the night before. She was pretty sure that this was a very clear sign that she wasn't ready to be dating yet and the fact that her heart still skipped a beat at the sight of Director Sharpe only confirmed that the date hadn't had the intended effect on her.

"Did I call you last night?" Sara asked, finally looking up at the other woman.

Ava shrugged, "I left my phone here last week," she said and held up the device as if to prove it.

Sara nodded as the other woman unlocked her phone and she watched as her eyebrows pinched together.

"I got a message from you," Ava said as she clicked on it and brought the phone to her ear.

The captain's eyebrows shot up as everything came back and she jumped to her feet, "no no no, put it down," she said desperately.

Ava frowned at her and instinctively stood up as the other woman came towards her, though she didn't put the phone down even with the ex-assassin speeding over to her.

With her frantic mind, Sara wasn't really thinking what she was doing, so she stepped onto the couch and basically flung herself at the other woman. She landed on her back with her arms tightly around her shoulder, but she could tell that she was too late as every muscle in the other woman's back was tensed.

Sara still grabbed her phone and threw it violently to the ground.

"You're over me," Ava repeated, Sara groaned and slipped down to her feet and placed her forehead against the other woman's shoulder and she shook her head as if it would make this go away. "You're over me? When were you…"

Ava trailed off when she realised what words were about to come out of her mouth and she couldn't more thankful that her mind had somehow managed to stop herself.

Sara cringed and fell down to the couch with her throbbing head in her hands and groaned as she shook her head adamantly, this was not what she needed right now.

"Sara," Ava prompted when the captain didn't say anything.

The sighed and forced her flushed face out of her hands as she looked up at the director and said, "well recently…I've kind of had feelings for you."

"You have feelings for me," Ava said slowly, trying to figure out if the words made sense, but her mind was not prepared for this, "you have feelings for me."

"You had feelings for me first!" Sara said rather defensively.

"How do you…how do you know that?" Ava stuttered, not really in the right headspace to deny it right now.

"Gary told me," the captain sighed.

"When?" Ava asked, she wasn't sure why yet, but she already knew she was going to kick Gary's ass.

"When you were in the infirmary, right before you introduced me to Clarke," Sara replied.

The director didn't really react to her ex-girlfriend's name, but she realised that Sara had said it as if it should mean something. As if she thought that mentioning the doctor would somehow make her forget that Sara fucking Lance had feelings for her.

"Do you still…" Ava trailed off and looked down to her feet when she realised that she wasn't sure if she wanted the answer to that question. Every time she had been thinking about this happening, the answer had always been 'no' as she tried to quell expectations even in her day dreams, so she found it hard to believe that there was a possibility that her feelings were not one-sided.

"Do you?" Sara asked, with an almost pleading look in her eyes.

Ava opened her mouth, the answer was simple, the answer hadn't ever changed, but before she could say anything, a beeping emitted from the Time Courier.

She blinked and looked down at it, there was a 911 coming from Gary and since the Legends were on a forced break she could only assume the emergency didn't involve anything particularly stupid.

"I need to go…" she said absently.

"Ava," Sara said hating the desperation in her tone.

The taller woman didn't look back at her as she pressed the button on her courier to take her back to the Waverider. She figured that she could at least use the time to figure out what was actually happening.

Sara blew out a breath and fell back against the couch with her hands to her face.

s

-Three days later-

Ava wasn't entirely sure why she was avoiding the captain of the Waverider.

Once the crisis had been dealt with, Gary had informed her that Sara indeed had feelings for her and that Zari and Amaya had informed him that she had been pining bad since she had found out about her and Clarke (they were talking because of something about Team Avalance, Ava wasn't really listening to that part).

Ultimately, she decided that she couldn't be mad at Gary, especially since he was the only one she could actually talk to this about since her only other friends were the Legends and she had to imagine that they were pretty pissed at her for leaving Sara without an answer.

Once the adrenaline and shock had warn off, Ava realised that the answer was obvious, she had never stopped loving Sara Lance and the fact that she felt the same way only made her feel even more strongly, but that somehow scared her.

Sara hid her feelings from her because she thought that she was better off with Clarke and Ava couldn't help but wonder what would happen if they got into a relationship and she wasn't what Sara wanted. What if her imagination was better than the real thing?

Several times she had considered that if Sara really liked her, she would have got into contact by now, but the she remembered that the captain had no idea that she no longer had a girlfriend. She probably thought that she had walked out that day because she was in love with Clarke, which only pissed her off more because she had spent the last month or so in a relationship feeling bad for loving someone who loved her back. It was all pointless because she had been too much of a coward to say anything, but then again, Sara had been too much of a coward as well, only she got to hide behind the thought that the woman she had feelings for was happy with another.

It was at times like this when Ava realised that she was being completely irrational for not going to talk to her since there was nothing in their way no and her anger wasn't exactly justified since she had done the same thing, but love wasn't exactly a rational emotion.

There was a tentative knock at her office door and she looked away from the file in front of her. Another reason that she had rationalised for avoiding Sara was that she had a pile of paperwork to go through, even though she could easily give it to one of her agents to fill out.

"Come in," she sighed when she saw who was standing hesitantly at the door.

Gary opened the door slowly and walked just as slowly into the room with a tentative smile on his face. He had been thinking of having this conversation since Ava had tried to yell at him a few days ago and the fact that she continued to wallow only made him realise that it was necessary. Doctor Cameron had announced that she handed in her notice, so he had to figure that they had broken up, but he was well aware that her wallowing had nothing to do with that.

At this point, he was sure that Director Sharpe and Captain Lance were not together because they were just so used to not being together at this point that they were just too stubborn to go for what they both wanted. It was more than frustrating for someone who saw how perfect they would be together.

"Can I talk to you, Ava?" he asked.

Ava quirked an eyebrow at him, it wasn't often that he called her by her first name but when he did, she knew that it meant that this would be a friendship conversation.

"Sure," she replied and motioned for him to take the seat opposite her.

Gary took a moment to consider his words, before he asked, "why haven't you spoken to Sara in three days?"

"You know why," Ava sighed.

"Actually…I don't. I don't get why you're mad at Sara for being in love with you," he said with his eyebrows pinched together.

The director opened her mouth to explain it, but no words came out.

"She didn't want to tell you because she was scared of not being your friend and she still doesn't know that you and Clarke broke up…"

"What are you you suggesting, Gary?" Ava asked, when she decided that she had no excuse to come back at him with.

"I'm saying that you should stop being stubborn and go and ask Sara out on a date," Gary replied, looking very afraid that she would be yelling at him for being unprofessional.

Ava opened her mouth to yell, to say that it was none of his business, but she realised that she was being an idiot. She had to wonder if she hadn't gotten that emergency call if she would have stayed and ended up telling Sara the she felt the same way.

She swallowed hard and stood from her chair, she once again knew that the Legends were not on a mission at that moment so she figured that it was now or never.

"Could you please tell the commissioner that I went home sick?" she asked as she started punching in the numbers into her courier.

Gary grinned widely and nodded in excitement. He knew that Sara was the only person who Ava would ditch work for and that was exactly why he knew they needed to be together.

Before she could change her mind, Ava stepped through the portal and into the hallway. This time, she did hear sounds coming from the kitchen and she figured that the Legends were in fact having breakfast together.

When she realised that Sara was with her team, she thought about running and coming back later, she wasn't sure that she could deal with being rejected in front of them. But then she realised that their issue had been that they were both too afraid to say how they felt. If Sara still loved her then there wouldn't be a problem, and if she had changed her mind then they could both stop wallowing.

She took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen to find the Legends sat around the counter, laughing and eating. However, their captain was on her feet and leaning forward onto the counter with a deep set frown as she stabbed at her food disinterestedly.

Ava's heart fluttered at the sight of the blonde and she suddenly felt terrible by the prospect that she was the one who had put that frown on her face.

She cleared her throat, deciding that it was a good thing that the entire team was there. She wanted them all to know how she felt about her.

They all looked over to her and Sara's eyes widened as she dropped her fork to the counter and stood up straighter.

She swallowed hard and said, "Director Sharpe…Gideon didn't say that you were here."

Ava tilted her head, she could tell that it was taking everything the captain had to remain professional, though she wasn't quite successful in hiding the pain on her face.

"I'm not here as the director," Ava replied, hoping that she was exuding more confidence that anxiety, "I realised that I never got to tell you the other day that Clarke broke up with me."

Sara's mouth fell open and her eyes widened as she tried to take in the implications of that piece of information, especially the implications of the fact that Director Sharpe would show up in the middle of work to tell her that.

She looked over to Zari and Amaya who were grinning widely at her and she had to try and stop herself from rolling her eyes at them, though she was having trouble coming up with a platonic explanation for this.

"Okay…I'm sorry…" Sara replied, very much aware that there was an audience presence for what could be the most awkward moment of her life if she was about to get rejected.

"I'm the one that needs to apologise." Ava said and began to take slow steps towards the captain, "I left before I answered your question."

"Oh," Sara said, "what question?"

Ava smirked at how adorable the normally fearless woman looked when it came to love and she replied, "you asked me if I still have feelings for you and I was too scared to tell you that the answer is yes."

Sara's legs reacted before her mind as they took her over to the director and before Ava could say anything else, the captain had already placed her hands around her neck and pulled her down for a kiss.

Ava took a second to react, but her hands came up to rest on Sara's waist and she deepened the kiss.

The captain was about to move her tongue into the other woman's mouth, but she was interrupted by a loud whooping noise. She detached her lips, but not her hands, and turned around to see Zari and Amaya high fiving.

"I knew Gary could do it!" the wind totem-bearer said triumphantly.

Sara quirked an eyebrow and turned to look back at the director who she didn't want to let go of. She was sure that she should be mad at her for not getting back into contact after just leaving, but that was something that they could discuss later, hopefully over dinner and a drink.

"He basically told me that I shouldn't be mad at you for having feelings for me and I realised i was being an idiot," Ava whispered, no longer quite happy that they had an audience.

Sara seemed to notice how uncomfortable she suddenly got, she already got the impression that Ava wasn't really comfortable with feelings so she figured that it must have taken a lot for her to make such a gesture in front of the Legends. Somehow that only made it all the more sweet and made her more sure thats he would be able to easily forgive the woman for the radio silence.

Her hands dropped down from her neck and slipped into her hand and she began to pull her out of the kitchen, "you all have the day off, don't do anything stupid," she called and began to walk towards the Library so that she could have a more private conservation with the other woman, to the chorus of wolf-whistles from her team. She could have sworn she heard someone shout 'go get it captain.'

Ultimately the conversation only took ten minutes as they both apologised for the misunderstandings, agreed to go on a date. The rest of the day was invariably spent making out and watching the Netflix shows Ava had insisted that she didn't have time for.

Finally, she reluctantly left so that she could go and and get ready for their date and Sara spent a few minutes just laying on the couch in a sort of daze until Gideon reminded her that she also needed to get ready.

The captain let out a contented sigh and pushed herself to her feet, already deciding that this date was going to be completely alcohol-free, she wanted to remember every moment.


	7. Epilogue

-One year later-

Ava groaned.

She was very tempted to just let her eyes stay closed for the rest of the day.

Pain was radiating across her ribs and through her left arm and it was an unfortunately familiar sensation.

She vaguely remembered being thrown back against a wall by a fairy god mother with serious anger issues. Since the first unicorn attended Woodstock, the bureau had started leading missions at the same time as the Legends and Director Sharpe decided to blow off some steam after not seeing her girlfriend in three days. The Legends were currently hunting a pack of werewolves in Elizabethan England. According to Gideon's updates, they should be done at some point the next day.

"Ava?"

The director scrunched up her eyes. The voice was yet another familiar sensation, one that she would have never thought she would hear again.

Ava squinted her eyes open to see that her mind was not playing tricks on her.

"Clarke?" she asked.

The doctor just smiled at the confused woman and pulled a flash light out of to check her pupils.

"Of course you're my first patient," she chuckled as she scribbled at her chart.

Ava drew her eyebrows together and pushed herself up slightly, only for the doctor to lightly push her back to the bed with a shake of her head.

"You have two broken ribs, stay put director," Clarke tutted.

Ava groaned and and resisted the urge to place her hand where it hurt. She swallowed hard against her dry throat and tried to figure out what was going on through her foggy mind.

"I thought…you work at the Mayo clinic?"

"Wow, it's nice to see the director is so hands on in recruitment," Clarke laughed.

Ava opened her mouth to defend herself but she realised she didn't have much of a defence. Having Sara made the decision to delegate much easier. Why wouldn't she want to stay on the Waverider when her other option was signing and reading reports?

Clarke looked away from the chart and smirked at the expression on her ex-girlfriend's face. There was a time that she would probably would have been jealous at the thought that Ava would be willing to concede work for a relationship considering that she would have never done it for her, but she figured that the fact that she found the expression funny meant that she was finally over one of her first loves.

Ava's face scrunched up as pain shot through her stomach and she asked, "Seriously though, why are you back at the bureau?

"Fellowship ran out of funding," Clarke shrugged.

"Oh god, Clarke I'm so sor…"

The doctor held up her hand and shook her head, "I have a policy of not letting injured people apologise to me. Besides, I was planning to come back anyway…I'm getting married."

Ava's eyebrows shot up. She wasn't sure why she was surprised to be honest considering thats he knew nothing about Clarke since she had collected her stuff from Ava's apartment.

Clarke chuckled at the pure confusion on the other woman's face and moved over to check that her arm was bandaged right.

"I know you know Tamsin Harper from that time you tried to set your girlfriend up with her."

"Agent Harper?" Ava asked with a knew that the agent had a part in getting her and Sara together and that she and Sara were still friends who talked occasionally, but she personally didn't know much about the woman outside of the bureau.

"She was one of my last patients after I handed in my notice, we got to talking about the stubborn idiots we tried to date…I gave her my number for updates on the situation and we ended up talking about everything else," Doctor Cameron explained with a smile spreading across her face.

When she left the bureau, she had been sure that she would never have a reason to come back. Before the uncertainty that the presence of Sara Lance caused, she had been sure that it would be Ava Sharpe that they would end up with, but the fact that she hadn't particularly been overly sad about their breakup (especially when compared to their first one) she knew that it could only mean that they were not meant to be together.

"Oh...that's great..." Ava said, "I'm really happy for you."

"I'm surprised that you didn't know, Tamsin said that she invited Sara..." Cameron said absently as she went back to checking her patient's vitals.

Ava drew her eyebrows together. Did Sara not tell her because she didn't want to go or was she worried that there was a chance that she would be upset that her ex was getting married?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps and she looked away from Clarke and over to the door.

A heavy sense of familiarity surged through Ava again when she saw Sara standing at the door with a very concerned look on her face. However, she didn't have a touch of jealousy on her face which Ava only knew she had last time because she later told her how much Sara hated her first meeting with Clarke.

"I thought you was on a mission?" Ava asked, moving to sit up again.

"No," Doctor Cameron said and pushed the woman back down onto the bed, "what do you not understand about broken ribs?"

Ava huffed and Sara laughed as she walked over to her girlfriend and said, "we finished early...mostly because half of Gideon's systems went offline. But Gary called and said you were attacked by a fairy god mother?"

"Yep, she broke two ribs and her left arm...again," Clarke mumbled and finished scribbling on her notepad, she ripped the prescription from the pad and handed it to Sara, "she needs to take these every four hours and make sure she rests."

Sara nodded and accepted the prescription with a genuine smile, though she didn't say anything directly to the doctor. Even if it was now a year ago, it was still somewhat weird that Clarke had broken up with Ava because she knew that she would be better off with Sara.

"I'll be back in a couple hours to discharge you as long as Sara is willing to take care of you?" Clarke said and received a nod from both women before she walked out with one final smile.

Even if she had agreed to allow Tamsin to invite them to their wedding, it was still incredibly weird to stand in the same room as them. No matter what, there would always be some history there so she was fairly sure that there was no chance that they would ever be going on a double date any time soon.

Once Sara was sure that they were alone, she leaned over to push some hair behind her girlfriend's ear and she asked, "how are you feeling, baby?"

"Everything hurts," Ava replied honestly.

The captain frowned and slipped into the seat beside the bed and the hand of the unbroken arm, "well with the Waverider broken, I can look after you."

"You seem…happy about that?" Ava asked with her eyebrows drawn together.

"Obviously I'm not happy that you're hurt but…" she trailed off, suddenly very aware of how silly this would sound. They had of course talked about Sara's jealousy back when Ava had been dating Clarke and Ava had spent a lot of time reassuring her that she was in no way inferior to the doctor, but Sara was still looking forward to the chance to look after the woman she loved.

"I get it," Ava interrupted so that the captain wouldn't have to explain.

Sara smiled and leaned over to place a kiss to the other woman's lips, but she was sure not to deepen it since the director was still technically at work.

A lull fell between them and Ava decided that if they were going to be waiting a couple hours, she might as well ask now, "so…Tamsin invited you to her and Clarke's wedding?"

"Oh yeah…" Sara cringed, "she invited me a few days ago, I was going to tell you after the mission…I figured that you probably wouldn't want to go because…you know…"

Director Sharpe smirked at the other woman and squeezed her hand, she always found it so adorable that the badass captain always seemed so worried about relationship-related things. She really wished that she could convey to her just how much of an amazing girlfriend she was was, as if something like this would actually make her mad at her. She was more concerned at the idea that Sara could think that she would be bothered by her ex getting married.

"You know that I'm over Clarke, right?" Ava asked softly, "I love you."

"Yeah I know," Sara replied easily, "but Tamsin only just told me who she's marrying and I wanted to talk about it in person…"

Ava nodded and said, "I get it, we can talk about later?"

Sara smiled brightly and pulled herself closer to the bed, it had taken some time to get terms with the fact that she was in a healthy relationship for the first time in her life, but it still somehow always made her happy when they talked about their problems rather than everything devolving into arguments.

"Yeah sure," the captain replied, "so now the real question is Lion King or Aladdin?"

s

The credits on the fifth Disney movie rolled and Ava yawned heavily and Sara pulled her head off her shoulder so that she could pause the TV.

"Do you want to watch another one, baby?" Sara asked, looking up to make sure that her girlfriend was actually still awake. She'd been moving in and out of sleep over the night but the captain had been determined to stay awake just to make sure that she was available if Ava needed anything.

Ava shook her head and pulled Sara closer for a moment as she closed her eyes.

Sara smiled into the crook of the woman's neck, but she pulled back when the Time Courier on her wrist began to beep.

"Pill time," she announced and Ava hummed in appreciation, she had noticed that the pain had began creeping back, but Sara had been so religiously making her take her medicine that it didn't last long. However, she knew that she would pretty much fall asleep straight away when she took them and there was also another pang in her stomach.

"Would you mind getting me some food before I take them?" Ava asked softly.

The captain sat up and nodded eagerly, "what do you want?"

"Chicken soup?" the director asked.

Sara leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss to her lips, "the food fabricator is still offline so I'll just go to the store, I'll be right back."

"'Kay," Ava replied with a yawn, "thanks for looking after me."

Sara smiled brightly down at her, already planning how she would get the woman to sit up so that she could eat without hurting her too much.

She opened a portal to the alley behind the store and Ava watched her go with a sleepy smile.

The director waited a few moments in silence before she was interrupted by the sound of a knock on the door.

She looked up and she smiled, "hey Z, what's up?"

The totem-bearer returned the smile to the injured woman and said, "Sara asked me to come and tell her when Gideon's back online. You can go to the med bay now…"

Ava nodded and looked over to the empty space next to her. It occurred to her that if she was better than she would have to go to work the next day and she kind of wanted her girlfriend to feed her soup and watch more Disney movies with her.

"Would you mind waiting a little while before you tell her?"

Zari frowned and tilted her head, "you don't want your broken bones fixed?"

Ava shook her head and replied, "not yet…"

"Okay…whatever makes you happy," she said as she turned to walk away, though she smiled as she went. Even she could admit how adorable they were.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if you're interested in more and I'll continue to add to this :)  
> Also feel free to suggest scene ideas since I've run out of ideas and I wanted to this be multi-chapter as long as people are interested :D 
> 
>  
> 
> Kudos are also appreciated and feel free to talk to me over on Tumblr @withgirl-sq either with prompts (I'm particularly itching to write angst right now lol) or about Avalance :)


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